El Dorado
by jj2629
Summary: With her brothers map in hand and the help of a pirate Durcella Hayward sets off to find the lost city of gold.
1. Chapter 1

1. I don't own any of the characters from POTC

2. This is one my first tries at writing and I greatly look forward to hearing your comments

3. If you have any suggestions on how I may improve my writing feel free to let me know about them

4. Enjoy!

El Dorado

_This can't be happing._

15 year old Durcella Hayward peeked over the edge of the barrel where she was hiding to glance at the men who had taken her brother captive. Her brother, Thomas, saw his sister behind the barrel and sensing that she was sizing up the situation in order to make her attack he locked her eyes in place with his own and slowly shook his head, telling her without words that it was a hopeless cause. He willed her not to do anything stupid. In his mind he was telling her to leave him, to run home where it was safe. He knew what was coming, and he didn't want his little sister to see it.

"Where's the bloody map!" One of his two captors said through green teeth and stinking breath.

The other tightening his hold on Thomas' arm said, "If ye just tell us then the master would have no reason te kill ye."

"And what a great man your master is. Sending two rats like yourselves to do his dirty work!" Thomas said to the second man, a sarcastic grin on his face.

"Thomas Thomas Thomas," said a man dressed in black as he walked out to the shadows of a nearby alleyway, "don't you know that if ye want a job done right. Ye got to do it yourself"

The man's back was to Drucella and as he walked up to Thomas his large frame blocked Thomas from his sisters view.

"I know where your family lives, do you really think that ye can protect them from me?" Just tell me where the map is and ye and your family will live" came the deep voice of the man in black.

"Give my your word that ye will leave my family alone and I'll give ye the map." Said Thomas.

"My lad," began the man in black, "ye have my word."

"Very well. Its in my left pocket."

Although Thomas knew that he could take on these men in a fight he would not risk the safety of those he loved and with a heavy heart he watched as the man in black took the map that Thomas and his sister had worked so hard to get. The map that would end all there family's problems. The map that would put food on the table and clothes on the backs and ensure a happy life for there children, and there children, and there children for years to come.

"I've given you what you want, now will you leave my family alone?"

"Of course I'll leave your family alone my boy … you on the other hand …."

The shot rang out through the streets, and from where Drucella crouched she could see her brother fall.

_This can't be happing._


	2. Chapter 2

20 years of searching has brought her here.

20 years since that fateful day when her beloved brother was shot down in cold blood before her eyes.

20 years of travailing from place to place asking people if they heard tell of anyone going out in search of El Dorado. The city of gold. The city that most people thought never existed. But it did. This she knew. Because it was her, Drucella Hayward, who held the very map that led to the city, and it was her who doomed her own brother by asking him to hold on to it for safe keeping.

She stood in the doorway of the bar eyes searching for the man who took her map and her brothers life. She had come to return the favor.

On her journeys she herd about a man by the name of Captain Blood Bath Bill who was moving around a lot trying to gather a crew brave enough to set out for El Dorado. She heard that he was once a powerful man, but once he got it into his head to look for El Dorado his crew thought he finally went mad and abandoned him.

She gave a nod to the bar tender. A man who earlier she had given a large sum of money in exchange for information. The bar tender nodded in the direction of an old man sitting back on to her at a table by himself. This was it. After so many years of searching she was finally about to meet her brothers killer.

"BLOOD BATH!" she called over the noise of the bar. At the sound on his name the man's head rose and as Durcella walked up behind him the man slowly turned around.

She came face to face with a withered old man. He looked frail and like he would crumble under the slightest touch. A cane was at his side and by the looks of his eyes he was blind.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked to nobody, unaware that all eyes in the bar were now turned to her.

"He's sick." Said a man leaning on a wall to her right. The man had dark eyes and hair that was knotted and littered with random beads and trinkets held back by a red bandanna. He wore a white shirt under a vest that had both seen better days and his skin was darkened by the sun.

Dru barely even heard him. She was lost in the shock of finding her brothers killer to be a weak man close to death. She had dreamed of this moment for years but never in her wildest dreams had she imagine this. She turned to the man who spoke:

"What?"

"Did ye not hear me luv? I said that he's sick. Been that way for years now. If you ask me I'd say he's being punished for all the wrong he's done."

"Well nobody asked your opinion now have they?"

"Fain enough luv" Said the man giving her a gold filled smile. This man was clearly a pirate.

Turning back to Blood Bath she caught sight of a small amount of yellowed paper peeking out of his pocket. She quickly grabbed it before the man had time to react and unrolled the weathered paper. It was her map.

"I believe this belongs to me." She said.

The old man dumbly looked around trying to locate where the voice was coming from.

"Who's there" He said.

"You killed my brother for this. It's time justice is done." Dru said as her hand mover to her hip were her brothers pistol hung. But it stopped. As she looked at this old man a thought went through her head. This man has suffered for years, and will suffer much more until the day he dies. To let him live in suffering would bring more justice the if she killed him and ended his misery.

Her eyes filled with tears and she turned to leave. But all at once all the pain she had been through since that day came flooding back and in one lightning fast movement she grabbed the pistol turned and shot Captain Blood Bath Bill dead.

She slowly turned, replaced the pistol, tucked the map safely inside of her long leather jacket and left the bar as tears flowed from her eyes. She walked out of the bar and into the cool star filled night and sat on a bench to the left of the bar door. She put her elbows on her knees and lowered her head to her hands and cried.

As she cried she heard footsteps coming from the bar and approach her.

"Still feels the same don't it?" said a voice.

Looking up Dru saw that it was the man she spoke to in the bar.

"What?"

"Killing someone who's wronged you. Ye spend years trying to find them and then ye do and ye kill them but the pain never goes away."

"How do you know?"

"Trust me luv, I know" Said the man as he sat down next to her on the bench.

Wiping the tears from her eyes she gave the man, who was now looking at her with what could be nothing other then concern, a forced smile. Offering her hand she said:

"I'm Dru Hayward." the stranger took her hand and looked at it for a moment before bringing it to his lips and gently kissing it, all the while his eyes never leaving hers. This action left Dru more then a little stunned.

"I know who ye are luv. I know all about ye Your story of tacking down the man who stole your map and your brothers life have traveled far. I also see ye have a wide array of weapons. You must be a pirate."

Looking down at the pistol that hung at one side and the sword hanging at the other. Each on a separate belt that hung low on her hips and crossed in the middle over a pair of faded black leather pants the laced up the side from her boots to just below her knee. She also wore a white shirt similar to his but in much better condition and her long well weather black leather jacked that went down below her knee and flared at her elbow. She could see how he could mack such an assumption.

"I am not a pirate my good sir, I happen to be the best theft that you'll ever meet. I could steal the clothes off your back and you wouldn't even know it "

"Is that so" He said a smile growing on his face. Clearly his mind was wandering.

Trying to steer the man away from and dirty thoughts he might be having she quickly added:

"Well since ye know so much about me I think ye could at least tell me your name."

"Do ye not know luv? I'm Captain Jack Sparrow."


End file.
